Braisd Ee Fu Noodle

After I married for many years, I don't do any cooking cos I have no chance since kitchen is MIL's territory. Well, probably also she is quite a good cook that I do not wanna 献丑 (embarrassing myself).

Even when my MIL started to have her majong sessions that she will be out during weekend, we will usually packet food back home or go out to eat. I simply never think of cooking for my family, I will rather bake than cook if I am available :P. I really dislike the sweaty feeling and the smoky smell on me during and after cooking.

We had home cooked food on Sunday (Saturday is my 娘家日 (visiting day to my mum's place)) only until my ex helper picked up cooking. She learned cooking from my MIL and my mum, as well as instruction from me. See, I rather use mouth to teach or instruct her and she did the cooking. I would stayed away from the wet kitchen, stand at the dry kitchen to oversee her through glass window or glass door while she was cooking, went in wet kitchen occasionally to check on her cooking.


My FIL thought I do not know how to cook, he told that to my ex helper. He was so surprised when my ex helper replied him that I can cook quite well . So he asked my helper why didn't I cook for him :P. I was quite puzzled when she told me that, so I asked her how did she know that I can cook. I forgot that I ever cooked congee at my mum's place and she fell in love with my congee, not bad right consider she as a non-congee lover :). My dear brother also shared with her that he love the fried rice that I used to cook very often before married.

Ever since I started to bake, my interest in preparing some simple dishes arises too. Now that my ex helper had left for good since 6 months ago and my current helper, hmmm... I can't rely her like what I did to my ex helper, since she can't even slice fruits according to the samples that shown to her. So if I want to cook during Sunday, I have to do everything by myself. My favourite of course is one dish meal, much easier for me to manage and I do not need to stay in the smoky kitchen for long period :P.

When I saw the guest post of Braised Ee Fu Noodle by Little Teochew in Pigpigscorner's blog, I immediately bookmarked it as I like ee fu noodle especially with lots of shiitake mushroom and bean sprouts. My FIL can't consume these 2 ingredients due to his grout but dear husband love bean spouts in noodle so what I did was to omit the shiitake mushroom, steamed the bean spouts and added steamed bean spouts after dished out the portion for FIL.

Recipe adapted from here.

Ingredients : for 4 - 5 servings
Braising sauce : (mix altogether)
4 1/2 tbsp oyster sauce
1/2 tsp dark sauce for colour (I added more as I felt the color of noodle is too light for me)
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp hua tiao wine
Dash of white pepper (I forgot to put in)
2 cup water

A :
2 cloves garlic, sliced thinly
5 to 6 handful beansprouts, tails removed (I bought S$0.30 from the wet market and used all)
4 1/2 dried mounds Ee Fu Noodles
some char siew, slice thinly (I bought S$2 from the wet market)
10 stalks of chye sim vegetables
1 can straw mushroom, slice thinly
1 big fish cake, sliced thinly
2 to 3 tbsp vegetable oil + 1/4 tsp white sesame oil

Method :
1. In a wok, heat vegetable oil and sesame oil. When it is very hot, add in garlic and fry briefly before throwing in the ingredients A and stir fry for about 1 minute.
2. Add braising sauce and allow to simmer (about 1 minute). Maintain medium-high heat throughout.
3. Add in Ee Fu noodles, making sure you submerge them in the braising sauce as much as possible. Cover with a lid and let the noodles stew in the sauce for 2 to 3 minutes. Open lid and check for doneness. There should be little or no braising sauce when the dish is done. Do not overcook or the noodles will become soggy. Allow the residual heat to continue cooking the noodles till al dente.
4. Dish up on serving plate and garnish with cut chives or coriander.

Verdict?
The noodle is very tasty, dear husband helped his 2nd serving. When I asked him to rate the noodle, he paused for awhile and said "8.5, if prawns are added, will be 9!" He was a bit upset that I forgot to add prawns despite he had reminded me (sorry but I am old liao so memory not so good mah). He said with the prawns, the presentation of the noodle will looks much better too :P. He also kept shaking head on the way I presented the dish, next time should ask him to do the job :P.
FIL finished his share too, a big big portion that had dished out for him before the bean sprouts added. So Dad, are you convinced now that I can cook too? :P